


and when it's time

by blueacorn



Category: One Piece
Genre: Fluff, M/M, or for reveals made in zou arc, very mild spoilers for zou arc?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 08:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10302935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueacorn/pseuds/blueacorn
Summary: The moment before Luffy leaves to collect his stray crew member.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i miss zoro and that is my explanation.

“I should’ve known,” he murmurs, nipping lightly at the soft, rubbery skin of Luffy’s neck, “you could never stay in the same place.”

Luffy laughs, a soft _shishishi_ breathy and warm against Zoro’s ear. Fingers tap their way up his neck, sliding smoothly into his hair as he’s pulled in closer.

“Nah,” Luffy agrees, shifting to catch Zoro’s gaze, head knocking back into the wall he’s pressed against. “‘Cause that’d be boring!”

Pulling back with a _tch,_ Zoro tugs lightly at Luffy’s cheek, suppressing a smile at the garbled _ow, Zoro!_

There’s never been a goodbye between them before. There was never any reason to, or never any time. He’s never had to send his captain off into fights he wouldn’t - couldn’t be in, over distances far too wide for him to be of any use.

The only time he hadn’t been at Luffy’s side, when he was injured and helpless islands away -

_“He’s my brother!”_

He’d failed him.

The words were heavy, damning, deafening. A chant in his head, each repetition a hammer-blow against his pride, sending him to his knees before the man he’d sworn to defeat.

_“I’m begging you-! Teach me the way of the sword!”_

_Make me stronger, stronger, stronger, so I’ll never lose-!_

Zoro sighs, letting go of the stretched cheek. At the quiet _slap_ of skin against skin, Luffy rubs the reddened flesh, frowning.

“That was too harsh, Zoro,” he whines, fingers tightening in Zoro’s hair.

“Oh?” Zoro questions, arms wrapping around Luffy’s waist, pulling him away from the wall and the possibility of a crushed straw hat, “Sorry.”

“Ahh,” Luffy says, unrelenting, “Liar!”

Still, Luffy melts into him, forehead pressed against Zoro’s shoulder, arms reaching up to wind around his neck.

Zoro pulls him in closer, closer, and closer still.

“Damn it,” he mutters, “That shitty cook better be worth it.”

Luffy laughs again, and _damn it,_ Zoro’s going to miss this.

“You’re worried, aren’t you?” he says brightly, shaking his head as best he can, “You can’t hide it!”

There are many things - far too many things Zoro could say to that, but he settles for a simple, “Why? Should I be?”

“Nope!” comes the immediate reply, “I’m going to bring Sanji back, and then we’re going to find pineapple guy and kick Kaido’s ass!”

“And...” Unlikely, but a possibility, “if he doesn’t want to come back?”

“Then,” and he can imagine the fire in Luffy’s gaze, “I want to hear it from him.”

There’s nothing more he can say to that, except -

“Aye aye, Captain.”

In a few moments he’s going to have to let him go. In a few moments he’s going to be left with nothing more than gratefulness that Luffy is as strong as he is and the trust that Luffy would make everything right.

But for now, in this rare silence, he breathes in the scent of the sea breeze on Luffy’s skin, and holds on.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
